


The Melon Heist

by YourOwnWriter



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Heist, That's it, To get melons, Toph and Zuko go on a fieldtrip, that's the whole thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:35:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26321992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourOwnWriter/pseuds/YourOwnWriter
Summary: Toph needs melons. Zuko knows where to get some. It's time for a heist.Set during book three on Ember Island.
Relationships: Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 2
Kudos: 79





	The Melon Heist

**Author's Note:**

> I am just a sucker for Zuko and Toph's friendship and good old heist fics.

Zuko always assumed he would break into a Fire Nation house sooner or later. He often needed things. Weapons, maps, medicine, and most often, information. While all these could be found in any kind of residency, information that he needed was usually off-limits to civilians. Lower ranking military officers equally did not hold anything of value, materials or knowledge, on account of their station. As far as Zuko knew, everything that was worth anything was greedily hoarded and guarded in the personal mansions and manors of admirals, generals and similar high ranking commanders within the Fire Nation navy. So far Zuko had been able to intercept whatever he needed from transport and offices. However, today this was not possible. The time had come to break into a house. A summer house to be exact. A summer house that belonged to Admiral Chan. They needed melons.

#

“Move over, let me dig.”

Zuko scooted away towards the underside of the stairs. He watched as the little earthbender burrowed her fingers into the sand and the ground gave away. A moment later they were hunched over the beginnings of a narrow tunnel.

“I can feel the top of the bunker about two feet down. Then another three feet to the floor.”

Zuko awkwardly angled his head to prevent it from bumping into the low wooden deck above him and looked down into the tunnel. It was barely wide enough to fit him, but if he squeezed he should manage.

“Alright”, he whispered, “that should be fine. Can you feel the door?”

Toph’s hand twitched once. “It’s right underneath these stairs to the deck, beside a big round thing. I think that’s a barrel of some sorts.”

Zuko nodded. He let his legs dangle into the tunnel, accidentally pushing some sand into the black pit. “If you see anyone coming, tell me.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she sighed, “will you relax? It’s the middle of the night. They’re all snoozing in their dainty silk pajamas. Now go!” She pointedly kicked him in the bit of thigh she could reach from opposite the hole. He refrained from retaliating only because breaking into this house, while certainly enjoyable, made him on edge. It was only a few weeks ago when he had kicked the ass of Admiral Chan’s son – Chan junior – during his own party in this very house, before proudly and unambiguously declaring to the entire party that he was the prince of the Fire Nation. Chances were the guy was still around. Zuko thought it would be better to get this over with quickly, and preferably without getting caught. Chan would probably enjoy seeing the newly ex-prince of the Fire Nation carried off in chains back to Caldera. He wouldn’t have agreed to break into the summer house at all, were it not for Toph’s insistence on needing melons, and the fact that the market stalls were void of those. Toph had quickly veered into suggesting a bunch of illegal stuff to get melons anyway, and Zuko had suggested stealing them from Chan’s house only because if they were going to rob someone, he’d rather it be someone he actively despised.

Zuko shot a last warning look at Toph. “Just wait here and be quiet. We don’t want to wake them up.” Before she could say anything he pushed off the ledge and wriggled his way down the tunnel. After a few moments his body was in freefall, and then his feet hit solid ground. He turned into a roll to break his momentum, and promptly launched himself into an open shelving unit. There was a loud crashing sound as his body hit the shelves, which seemed only amplified because of the small space. As he winced, several hard objects clattered onto his back and onto the floor. Zuko grimaced and held his breath. For a moment it was silent. Then he heard a scraping sound from above. Zuko felt his stomach drop in dread. Something flew past him before it shattered on the ground with force. For a few long moments after he stood still in the quiet room.

“Nice going, Sparky,” he heard Toph’s muffled voice from the ceiling. “Real model of silence, you are.” She sounded oddly delighted. He was slightly relieved Toph didn’t know about the Blue Spirit. There would be a bunch of hypocrite-jokes in his future, he was sure, but he would be spared the terrible ninja jokes. At least, if he would be here to hear her jokes at all and not rotting in a cell in the Boiling Rock. Zuko quickly pulled his focus back on the room, conjuring a flame in his hand with trepidation. He assessed the damage.

A large tea pot lay in pieces at his feet. It looked expensive. Zuko silently vowed he would never tell his Uncle. In between the carnage of porcelain fragments there were wooden bowls turned upside down and apples were scattered across the floor, some split in half, some cracked, all of them severely bruised. When he carefully tilted his head up he saw several more bowls that were teetering precariously on the edge of the shelving unit. He quickly pushed them back against the wall.

“Toph,”, he half whispered half shouted towards the ceiling, “do you hear anyone awake?” Unfortunately for them, Toph was unable to sense the inhabitants of the house. The summer houses on this part of Ember Island were built on wooden poles because of the frequent flooding. Only the bunker was carved into the ground beneath the beach. While the bunker was connected to the house, the entrance was mostly made of wood. Toph would be unable to use her earthbending to get a good look inside the house. However, her hearing was still perfect.

“I don’t think so. Do you see any melons?”

Zuko lighted the rest of the room. There were four large barrels lined up on the opposite wall. He assumed those would be filled with wine. Next to the barrels were some cabinets and more shelves, all covered in a myriad of food items. Most of the items were sealed shut tight so they would keep for a long time. These would be the emergency rations for the family of the house, should they have need to shelter in the bunker for a prolonged period of time. Sliding his gaze down he saw several bedrolls and comfy pillows, wrapped securely in waterproof materials to prevent mold. Looking to his left, there was an corner with cots and a cooking pot. To his right, he saw the door to the house and smaller barrels, stacked on top of each other. He peeked inside one of the small barrels. It was filled with grain. The one next to it contained rice. As silently as he could manage he lifted the upper barrels so he could look through the bottom row. There were dried fruits and more rice, but no melons to be found. Zuko felt himself getting more anxious and took a deep stabilizing breath. Then he remembered the bowls on the shelves he had violently encountered a few minutes before. He reached up to take them from the shelves. Disappointed, he realised they were full of fruits, but no melons.

“There are no melons here, Toph,” he whispered in the direction of the tunnel.

“Shit,” he heard her disembodied voice from above.

“Yeah, shit,” he replied.

A moment passed while they contemplated what to do.

“There are lots of other fruits here,” Zuko began, “maybe we could use those for Firelord practice?”

“No can do, Sparky. It has to be melons.”

“But _why_ ” he asked exasperated.

“Because there can’t be a melon-lord without melons, rocks-for-brains,” she said. If she weren’t blind, Zuko would’ve assumed she had rolled her eyes. “Gotta have a melon-lord, gotta have melons.”

“There are no melons.”

“You know what, that doesn’t sound right. Aren’t these people supposed to be fancy? Melons are fancy foods.”

Zuko frowned in confusion. “What? No, it is actually a commoners food,” he whispered.

A beat passed. “Are you saying I’m a peasant?” Toph said.

“I–, no–,” Zuko stammered, “ugh, that’s not what I meant!”

“Well, that’s what it sounded like. Get off your high fire breathing lizard-moose or whatever you have over here in the Fire Nation. We commoners can also eat fancy melons,” Toph said.

“Komodo-rhino’s,” he corrected automatically, a little confused of by the way this conversation was going. “We have Komodo-rhino’s – wait, didn’t you just got mad I said you were nobility? Now you side with the commoners?”

“And?” she said as if she dared him to continue that thought.

Zuko was very confused right now, a state he was often in when he was around Toph, he had learned. He considered if this was really the fight he wanted to pick right now. “Whatever,” he sulked. He heard her cackle in what he could only assume was victory.

“I’m coming up,” he grumbled. “There are no melons here.”

“No wait,” Toph’s voice interrupted her laughter. “Maybe they have some in the house.”

Zuko’s heart beat faster. “You want me to go into the house?” he asked incredulously.

“Yeah, obviously. This is just the back-up pantry, right? They must have a normal pantry at the kitchen too. Maybe they have melons there.” She sounded very matter-of-fact, Zuko thought, for someone who had exactly zero knowledge of Fire Nation interior decoration customs. Unfortunately for him, she was right. There would be a pantry for daily use up in the kitchen of the house. There would be fresh fruits stored that were ready for consumption. His anxiety spiked at the thought of going up into the house where Chan junior was most likely still around. He felt slightly sick as he realised that even Chan senior could be home.

“Toph, if they catch me, they will know who I am,” he pleaded.

“Then don’t get caught.”

Zuko wanted to rip out his hair.

“Will you let me leave without going up to the house?”

“… no.”

“Fine. But if I am being hauled out of this house in chains you better get me out,” he demanded.

“Of course,” Toph’s voice sounded indignant, “as if I would let them take you away. It’s been way too much fun since you joined.”

Zuko looked up towards the tunnel. “Really?” he asked tentatively.

“Ugh yeah, Sokka’s been all wound up and occupied with all his stupid plans or whatever and the rest of the time he only has eyes for Suki, and Aang’s too busy with his Avatar-stuff to hang out anymore. And Katara’s a lost cause anyway.” She paused for a moment.

“I mean, I get it and they have important stuff to do. But man, it’s been boring. At least you’re willing to do stupid stuff with me, like break into Admiral Sucks-ass summer house” she snickered.

Against his better judgement Zuko felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment, and a sneaky little bit of happiness. He decided to ignore why he was so impacted by such a declaration of validation from a twelve year old. He mulled the situation over in his head, and then groaned in defeat. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll go into the house.”

“Great,” Toph exclaimed.

“But,” Zuko continued, “you owe me –,” he paused as he tried to come up with something not too little and not too demanding and came up blank, “… a lot,” he finished lamely.

“Sure thing, Sparky,” Toph said. Zuko could hear the grin in her voice. 

He wondered momentarily if she had just masterly manipulated him to get back into the house voluntarily. Then he shook it off. Even if she did, he reasoned, she would not be cruel about it. After all, she wasn’t Azula.

“Alright,” he said. “Alright. You wait here. I’ll come back to this spot. If you hear anything at all…,” he hesitated. “Hide. No need to both get caught.”

With those words Zuko steeled himself and walked to the door towards the main house. He heard Toph say something behind him, but it was already too far away to make out the whisper-shouted words. He stopped before the door to the main house to listen. Silence. He slowly turned the handle and pulled the door open. It opened smoothly. Behind the door was a ladder that extended upwards into a wooden shaft. The shaft was broad enough to comfortably fit a man and a child side by side. He knew that if Toph could see, she would stare at the outside of the chute from her position under the deck of the house. At the top of the chute Zuko could vaguely make out the outline of another door. Zuko began to climb.

He was the Blue Spirit, he told himself. He could steal some lousy melons from a kitchen. This was nothing. As he climbed higher he saw there was a ledge, about two feet in depth, where he could stand before the door to the room beyond. 

He freed the Avatar from Zhao’s claws, Zuko thought. For Agni’s sake, he busted out of the most secured prison in the Fire Nation, with not much more than a skeleton crew consisting of prisoners and a teenage Water Tribe boy.

He paused before the second door. Silence.

Slowly, Zuko pushed it open. His eyes, adjusted to the pitch black of the bunker, saw clearly. There was a hallway that stretched to his right. It was dark, but the moonlight shone through the window opposite him and lit up the hallway in an eery light. On his other side, his vision was blocked by the door. Slowly, he creeped into the empty hallway. He swayed the door almost shut, leaving a little gap so there would be no noise as he returned to the bunker. Realising the hallway to his right ended in what seemed to be the living room, he turned to his left, and promptly looked into a pair of shocked eyes.

#

It was a testament to his long hours as the Blue Spirit and his childhood of hiding from Azula that he did not yell. Instead, he froze, one hand still on the door, one arm half outstretched to the girl in front of him.

The girl stared at him, similarly rooted to the spot. He could feel his heart beating in his ears so loud he thought she must be able to hear it too. He looked at her hand, in which she had a mug of some hot liquid. The kitchen, he thought. She must have come from the kitchen. Her eyes followed his gaze to the mug. Zuko wondered briefly if she was going to throw the steaming contents of the mug on him. The girl opened her mouth, and Zuko braced for a scream or shout.

“Are you a friend of Chan’s?” the girl asked quietly.

Zuko stared at her. “What?” he asked stupidly.

“Are you a friend of Chan’s?” the girl asked again, her voice uncertain but steady.

“Uh…”, Zuko stomped down the instinctive urge to gag and deny. “Yes?” he choked out. He cleared his throat. “Yes,” he said more steadily this time. “I am a friend. Of Chan’s”.

Zuko knew he was a terrible liar. The girl looked doubtful. He fervently wished the girl would blame his weirdness on the late hour and shock. He saw her gaze flick to the door, and then to the left side of his face. In a panic, Zuko waved his outstretched arm to the door, pointing at it dramatically. “I was looking for…” he started, panicked, and searching desperately for the end of the sentence he had begun, “… the toilet! I have to pee, I mean.”

He saw the girl’s doubtful expression accented with something Zuko thought was most likely pity. The part of him that wasn’t in a state of uncontrolled panic thought that she had a point, because he sounded like he was hit in the head as a child with a rock. Which, in all fairness, he was, repeatedly, by Azula.

“The toilet is the other way,” the girl said. At his glazed yes, she pointed her chin behind him, “through the seating area, to the left.”

She looked at him expectantly. “Alright?” he said awkwardly.

They stood across from each other for a few moments more before Zuko realised she was waiting for him to move. He reluctantly turned his back on her and followed the dark hallway. He could feel her eyes on his back. He thought she hadn’t recognized him, but he couldn’t be sure. Instinctively he looked around for things he could use in as a weapon in a pinch. The girl was young, but growing up with Azula he had learned quickly not to underestimate his opponents because of their age. He didn’t even know if she was a bender or not. He could hear her closing the door to the bunker behind him as his heart beat wildly in his chest.

“Are you from the beach party?” she asked from behind him.

Zuko weighed his options. The walk to the seating area was excruciatingly long, even though objectively it was a very normal length for a hallway. Would it be weird if Chan had brought a stranger back home from the party he apparently had attended? Or was it a trick question? Maybe there was no beach party at all and she waited for him to slip up. He hated that he could not see her. She could attack him at any moment without him being able to anticipate her movement.

Zuko opted to grunt non-committedly. He prayed that was enough to satisfy her.

“Oh. Did you come home with Chan?” the girl asked. He did not know what to say to that.

As soon as he walked into the large seating are he was relieved to turn back around to face her. She looked at him with a funny expression.

“That way”, she pointed at another door. “It’s just outside.”

He looked over his shoulder. The sitting area was framed by high windows that Zuko knew could open to the night air to allow for sitting outside while still inside. They were closed right now, but the moonlight was enough to see his surroundings. Zuko could see the door she pointed out on the wall next to the window. Zuko thanked her.

She seemed to hesitate for a moment. “What’s your name?” she asked.

Zuko silently thanked Agni. He knew how to answer this one.

“Lee,” he said confidently.

“Alright Lee,” the girl said. “Are you staying the night?”

“No,” Zuko guessed.

She nodded, seemingly satisfied with his answer. “Okay. I was nice meeting you, Lee.”

Zuko disagreed with that statement, but was too relieved that they seemed to part ways to care much. His heart was still beating a percussion solo in his chest. She started to walk away to what he assumed were the bedrooms, when Zuko suddenly had the thought of mind to shout “Wait!”.

Zuko winced at how loud his voice was. The girl halted and looked at him. Zuko already regretted his outburst, but he also knew Chan could not know she had seen a mysterious boy with a scar on the left side of his face in the middle of the night in his summer house. Chan wasn’t exactly the brightest star in the sky, but he wasn’t that dumb.

“Uhm, could you not tell Chan you saw me here?” Zuko asked the girl.

The girl looked surprised.

“Please?,” he added.

“Why?” she asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Zuko swallowed and racked his brain for an excuse. “He doesn’t know I’m here,” he began. He wondered briefly why he always started a sentence without knowing what he was going to say next. Uncle was right, he never thought things through. “He had a little too much to drink”, Zuko went out on a limb. He paused. He wasn’t sure how to continue this lie convincingly. Lucky for him, the girl seemed to be as willing as him to find a plausible explanation for his unexpected appearance in the house.

She sighed. “He always gets too drunk at these things,” she muttered. “That’s fine. My brother is an idiot,” she told him with an annoyed tinge in her voice that Zuko wanted to assume was aimed at Chan, not him.

“Uhm, yes. I just brought him home,” Zuko improvised. “You know, to…uhm… to make sure he got here safely? I was supposed to leave afterwards. But I was tired, and went to lay down for a moment, and I fell asleep.”

“And you fell asleep” the girl parroted.

“Yes,” Zuko lied, glad that his voice sounded more secure than he felt. “That’s right”.

The girl seemed thoughtful. The liquid in her cup had almost stopped steaming.

Zuko was unnerved by her silence. “He really insisted I leave, and he seems to have a short fuse.” Zuko added, worried that would push it too far, but too anxious to let the deafening silence continue. If he had been in his Blue Spirit mask, he would be able to wait for the other to crack, he thought. But conversation without his mask to hide behind had never been his forte. Time passed unbearably slow as he waited for her to answer.

“That’s true,” the girl said finally. “He doesn’t like the… friends… he brings back to stay.” Zuko thought that was an odd way to phrase it, but he wasn’t going to tell her that.

“Okay,” she said with an air of finality, “I won’t tell. Just leave after you’re done,” she waved vaguely in the direction of where she had said the outdoor toilet was located.

Zuko let out a breath he hadn’t realised he had held. “Thank you,” he said.

“You’re welcome,” the girl said, smiling vaguely. She started to walk away, but looked back at him for a second.

“You know, next time, it’s best you leave my brother at the party,” she said. “He is an asshole and you won’t get anything out of bringing him home but a headache.” Zuko nodded, because he did not know what right answer she could possibly expect. His hands were very clammy. She seemed to find some kind of affirmation in his nonverbal confirmation, but of what Zuko did not know. She smiled crookedly.

“Well,” she said smugly. “Bye,” and then she walked off, closed the door behind her, and was gone. Zuko wanted to sag onto the floor in relief. 

#

Zuko wanted to curse the melon-lord. If only he could scream. The house was quiet except for his own barely audible footsteps on the wooden floors. He had turned on his heels and was walking back to where he had first seen the girl. When he passed the door back to the bunker he had to fight the urge to bolt. The girl had most likely come from the kitchen after making something to drink.

There probably weren’t even any melons, he thought pessimistically. He felt like had already used up all of his luck when he managed to get away from hot-drink-girl. ‘Chan’s sister’, his mind supplied.

He didn’t even know Chan had had a sister. He couldn’t remember her from the house-party. He figured she must’ve not been there, because otherwise she would have surely recognized him on sight. Maybe she still had and was just waiting him out to get help. He quickened his pace.

Zuko wanted to jump for joy when he rounded a corner and saw a small but luxuriously fitted kitchen. It was gloriously empty from people. He saw no food left out in the open, except for some spices in racks. Next to the doorway there hung several cooking aprons. The walls were covered in tall wooden cabinets. He started to open them one by one as quietly as he could. Finally, at the sixth cabinet, he was met with the glorious sight of five giant, wonderful, green melons. He could cry.

Then, he heard a door open on the other side of the house.

Channelling all the speed he possessed he grabbed one of the aprons, wrapped up the melons, and sprinted as silently as possible back into the hallway. He heard footsteps in the seating area on the other side of the hallway and a muffled voice. It was a male voice. The girl must have woken Chan up. Within seconds he was at the door to the bunker. Zuko’s breath came fast as he yanked it open and threw himself inside. He barely refrained from slamming the door behind him, instead carefully closing it. Then he climbed down the ladder one-handed, the other straining to hold the apron with the melons steady on his back.

“ _Toph_ ” Zuko whispered furiously. “ _Toph, get me out of here_!”

“Sparky!” Toph’s voice drifted down from the tunnel, sounding relaxed. “You took forever. What did you do, stop for a little nap?”

“Not now, Toph. Someone’s awake!”

His words had barely left his lips when he felt the earth already move beneath him. He was rocketing up towards the tunnel.

“Stop! It’s not going to fit, Toph! Make it bigger!”

The tunnel obligingly widened enough to fit both him and the melons, and the next moment he was through and breathing the fresh night air. 

“Alright, Sparky! Nice catch!” Toph looked appreciatingly at the large impromptu sack, which showed five large humps. Zuko shushed her desperately. “What don’t you understand about ‘people are awake’?”

“Relax,” Toph said leisurely, “they can’t hear us from –,” she abruptly stopped. Zuko held his breath as she pricked her ears. Then he heard it too. The door above them opened with a squeak.

“Seriously, what else could it have been except for people talking?” a voice said irritably.

Zuko looked up and could make up a pair of feet through the small gaps in the deck. He prayed to Agni the man would not look downwards.

“Probably a badger-raccoon,” a girl’s voice replied lazily. “You know they always get in the trash around here.”

“Didn’t sound like a raccoon,” the man’s voice – Chan’s voice – said. “It sounded like voices. How can you be _this_ dumb? Of course there are seedy peasants are skulking around here. They probably were looking for something to steal. Anything they have cannot be worth much. One silver spoon would probably set them up for the rest of their life,” he sneered.

“Agni, don’t be such an asshole Chan. You are probably still drunk. I’m telling you it was nothing,” the girl replied with equal annoyance.

They needed a distraction, Zuko thought nervously. Chan and his sister were way too close for comfort. If he raised his head a little bit more, he would risk his hair peeking through the deck. Zuko’s neck started to get a cramp from its uncomfortable sideways angle. Between him, Toph, and the five melons there was barely enough room to move. Carefully reaching over one of the melons he tapped the sand to get Toph’s attention. She tilted her head in acknowledgment. He tried his best to explain what he wanted by drawing it in the sand. He was fairly sure it was not working, if her furrowed brow and general confused expression was anything to go by. Then, she raised her arms and extended her wrists sharply. In the distance, he heard frantic flapping of something large at the same time as he heard Chan’s startled cry, which Chan quickly covered op with a cough.

“Ha!” the girl said, “Voices. Right. You just heard those seagulls, you idiot,” she crowed.

“Shut up!” Chan said, “I did not hear seagulls, I heard voices!”

“Right,” the girl retorted gleefully, “The seagulls probably had a lovely chat about the state of fish tonight.”

“Shut up,” Chan grumbled. “I know what I heard,” but Zuko could hear the doubt in his voice.

“Sure thing, Chan,” the girl yawned. “Well, this has been a riveting experience, but I am going back to bed. I suggest you do the same when you’re done sulking about a couple of birds.” Zuko held his breath in anticipation as he heard the door click behind her. The feet above him moved around for a minute as Chan was shuffling around the patio, mumbling to himself. Then he too went back inside. Zuko assumed he accepted the fact that he was not going to catch any robbers tonight. If only he knew.

He heard the door click a second time. Zuko let out a long breath. He looked over at Toph, who was giving him the thumbs up. Zuko felt irrationally grateful to her considering she got him into this mess in the first place. He was also very grateful to Chan’s sister. He guessed every psycho sibling really did have a normal sibling to balance them out.

“Let’s go,” Toph whispered. They scrambled out from under the patio. Zuko hauled the melons on his back, and they made a break for the tree line behind the house. He fervently hoped the inhabitants of the house would not realise the seagulls had taken an apron and their supply of melons. That would surely raise suspicion.

“I wasn’t sure you understood my message,” he panted as they ran, “it was hard to draw it out.”

Zuko heard Toph running beside him as she called.

“What? No, I just saw those birds and figured they wouldn’t mind serving as a nice little distraction. Your thing didn’t make sense at all. What were you drawing anyway? Because it looked a lot like an ass!”

“Hey, it did not look like an ass!” he sputtered.

“Sure, Sparky. You’re a real artist,” she said sarcastically. “Maybe try something a little less abstract next time, alright?”

Zuko grumbled, but didn’t reply. Silently, he followed Toph back to their camp while she yelled “Melon-lord! Melon-lord is coming for you all!” cackling all the way.

Despite himself, he shook his head and grinned. Maybe he could be the fun one for a little while longer, he thought.


End file.
